Various – ‘Ramblin’ Men’ – US Ramblin’ Hobo Songs 1929 – 1961 – DL095

Various – ‘Ramblin’ Men’ – US Ramblin’ Hobo Songs 1929 – 1961 – DL095

Released: 9th September 2013, Download Only

The vastness of North America with it’s variety of landscapes, towns and cities meant that travel was a huge part in the development of the nation.You had to travel during hard times to find work, this could involve great distances across prairies, mountain roads, deserts and highways. Migrant workers could converge on mass at the chance to earn a dollar, some folks just dropped out of society and took their chance on the road to discover a new life as Hoboes sleeping under the stars and travelling in box cars. Hobo’s even developed their own coded language of symbols chalked on to gates and fence posts telling friends where they could find work , a bed for the night or a hot meal. Since the very start of country music Jimmie Rogers romanticised about the Lonely Hobo drifting from town to town, Woody Guthrie carried on the tradition doing some Hard Travelling to every state himself! And later the great Hank Williams sang the haunting Ramblin’ Man. It was a tough life on the road and this remained a common thread in American music right into the 1960’s- in the words of Otis Rush………… ‘So many Roads So Many Trains’